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Expert meeting on safety culture and risk management in agriculture

Oct 31, 2018: COST action 16123 „SACURIMA“ met for a Core Group and Working Group 5 meeting in Berlin on 29th of October. The meeting was organized by the German member and leader of Working Group 1, ATB scientist Dr. Martina Jakob.

SACURIMA stands for Safety Culture and Risk Management in Agriculture. The main aim and objective of this Cost Action in Agriculture is to explore the reasons why agriculture continually lags behind improvements made in occupational health and safety in other major economic sectors. Statistics show agriculture to be consistently ranked in the most dangerous occupations across Europe but also show great differences in national fatality, injury and illness rates.

The Cost Action will explore the various approaches in prevention and compliance programs across Europe and beyond and attempt to identify why some countries have been more successful than others in reducing work related injury and illness in the agriculture sector.

To achieve these goals the Cost Action has established five Working Groups. ATB scientist Dr. Martina Jakob leads Working Group 1 which will study, identify and evaluate the national programmes for occupational safety and health in agriculture in all participating member countries. The group will focus on the elements of these programs which have been identified as being of real benefit and effective in improving and maintaining safety standards. Moreover, the group will document current national programmes and policies and develop key guidelines on the construct of effective national programmes.

Contents of the meeting in Berlin were to review Sacurima goals, deliverables and timelines in order to plan current year 2 and year 3 of the action. Promotion and communication strategies were also on the meeting agenda.

On 30th of October, SACURIMA was presented at the ENASP conference in Berlin, the European Network of Agricultural Social Protection Systems, an alliance of Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Poland. The conference motto was Social cohesion – crucial for the healthy future of agriculture, and the first speech was held by Prof. Risto Rauitiainen on “Safety culture and risk management in agriculture – a common challenge.